Does anyone know the date that Mastermind By Chris Kenworthy was released. I am asking because going through some of my old instructions I found an effect titled "Super Prediction" that is nearly identical in presentation and the gimmicked cards. I know the person who had the instructions and he was involved with magic in the 50's & 60's. He passed away in February of 1987. It even uses the same duplicated card, Three of Hearts. In the Kenworty instructions he credits Hiro Hirata for its release.Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.Thanks,Rennie

The version I have has no date on the deck or the instructions. The instructions say, "Routine for Mastermind by Chris Kenworthy and Hiro Hirata." They also contain "Routine for Any Card at Any Number" by Kenworthy.

I believe the basic idea is in Annemann's book "202 Methods of Forcing."

I did a search of Genii, and the first ad for Chris Kenworthy's Mastermind is found in Volume 49, Number 4, October 1985, pg 214-15. Given Genii's sometimes irregular publication schedule during those years, it's not clear to me the exact date this was published; however, I could not find any earlier reference to this particular version of the MC pack in Genii.

The ad does credit Hiro Hirata for "releasing this peerless mind teaser to the magic fraternity", but no previous credits are cited.

(As a side note, this was a very effectively worded ad; however, some might debate the veracity of this phrase from the ad: "No forcing of any kind is ever employed!" [emphasis per original]. Is this really true if you are using a forcing deck?)

Mr. Maven wrote in Genii, Vol 72, pg 439 that the gaffed card involved in this deck was first recorded in 1612. He also noted that the Henry Hardin title for his deck was "The Peerless Monte Cristo Cards" (1908). Apparently, the Hiro Hirata credit quoted above was well-phrased.